How to get a ListView's child view at specific index

Question

I need to dynamically change the background color of a child view of a ListView at a specific index. So I need to get the view first before applying the background.

I have tried the following.

getViewAt(int index) - this is not applicable to ListView.

getChildAt(int index) - this gives runtime NPE error

A Google search returns irrelevant results.

Please help me out. Thank you.

You need to do that on the getView method of your custom adapter. Check if the position is the same you want to change and apply your background changes. — Pedro Oliveira, Oct 13 '14 at 08:26
you can use adapter.getView() but you may want to do that on the getView() itself — TootsieRockNRoll, Oct 13 '14 at 08:27
`listView.getChildAt(index);` should work. Show code and exception trace. — MysticMagicϡ, Oct 13 '14 at 08:28
possible duplicate of [How change color of specific item of listview?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23755522/how-change-color-of-specific-item-of-listview) — Phantômaxx, Oct 13 '14 at 08:28
`A Google search returns irrelevant results.` I doubt you really searched, since **I did** and got **a lot** of **relevant** results. — Phantômaxx, Oct 13 '14 at 08:30
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4075975/redraw-a-single-row-in-a-listview — pskink, Oct 13 '14 at 08:32
@FrankN.Stein The results that I got were about getting the index of a view. — David Heisnam, Oct 13 '14 at 08:44
@PedroOliveira getView() is not recommended for dynamic change of background. Like when the view is already visible. — David Heisnam, Oct 13 '14 at 08:46
The person who marked this question as duplicate is a wrong. It is possible to set the background of a ListView's child through the adapter, but what if I want to change the backround after getView() has already been called and the view is already drawn? — David Heisnam, Oct 13 '14 at 08:50
@FrankN.Stein the answers don't tell how I can get a child view — David Heisnam, Oct 13 '14 at 08:55
Check my answer, y'all. My answer will help you better understand the question. — David Heisnam, Oct 13 '14 at 10:21

David Heisnam · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-14T15:45:22.343

I figured out how to do this.

I really think that one should not have to post code and logcat for a question that is similar to "How to set background image".

Anyway my answer is, in short, set position as tag for every child in the listview through your adapter's getView() and then get any child using findViewWithTag(Object tag).

@Override
public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
    convertView = (LinearLayout)inflater.inflate(R.layout.some_layout, parent, false);        .
    convertView.setTag(String.valueOf(position));
}

And whenever you need to get a specific child.

View v = mylistview.findViewWithTag(String.valueOf(index));

To change background color.

v.setBackgroundResource(R.color.some_color);

This is the answer that I was expecting. And it is exactly what the title asks. So whoever marked this as duplicate, could you tell me if this answer is in the question that this one is a duplicate of? — David Heisnam, Oct 13 '14 at 09:35

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 13 '14 at 08:37

1

Use getChildAt(index) from ViewGroup to get View.

answered Oct 13 '14 at 08:37

Torbik

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How to get a ListView's child view at specific index

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